


Codeword: Sandwiches

by satanfish (mjindra9)



Series: Songs of Innocence and Experience [4]
Category: Spooks | MI-5
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-31
Updated: 2017-12-31
Packaged: 2019-02-25 21:44:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 942
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13221855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mjindra9/pseuds/satanfish
Summary: Ros gets an urgent call from the woman running surveillance on Lucas that he's meeting with someone and might be speaking in code. Ros investigates.





	Codeword: Sandwiches

**Author's Note:**

> Set in the Songs verse, but reading the other parts in Songs is not required to read or follow this. Rambles in the end notes :)
> 
> Also, this is inspired by a scene in Chuck. While I didn't lift the exact words from the show, there is a section that is heavily influenced by that scene.

Ros sighed as her phone started to ring. She was looking forward to a quiet night in after another chaotic day on the Grid. Really, as much as she was glad Harry had seen sense and gave her Section D, she wouldn’t mind the _occasional_ night where something _didn’t_ go wrong.

On the second ring, Ros reluctantly repositioned Vladimir to be seated on the couch beside her instead of on her lap and got up to fetch her phone. Vladimir twitched his tail in annoyance at being displaced, but Ros ignored it. Upon seeing Agatha’s number, she wasted no time answering. If Agatha was calling, it meant Lucas was doing something of note, something that might suggest maybe he really was the rotten apple she wasn’t entirely convinced he wasn’t.

“Yeah,” Ros said as she answered.

“There’s something of note,” Agatha said. Neither of them wasted time with pleasantries. “He met with someone about four hours ago and they’re still talking, but I think it might be code for something.”

Ros frowned. She wouldn’t put it past Lucas to speak in code. Harry was adamant that Lucas was a brilliant spy, and, even if Ros had her doubts, Harry wasn’t exactly one for exaggeration. “Alright, I’ll be right there.” _So much for a night in_.

-x-

As she made her way upstairs, Ros paused by Lucas’ door. She could hear voices inside. Two men. One was obviously Lucas. The other was someone whose voice she didn’t recognize. Ros couldn’t quite make out what they were saying, so she opted against loitering and made her way upstairs. Knocking once on the door, she waited for Agatha to open up.

“Pest control,” she said when the elderly woman opened the door.

Agatha hummed and beckoned Ros inside. Shutting the door behind her, Ros picked her way carefully through the flat. Finally, they reached the monitors, where Ros could see Lucas was sitting in the living room with another man. She tried to place the man’s face. The whole point of running surveillance on Lucas was so that she _wouldn’t_ have to recognize faces.

“Do we know who that is?” Ros asked, pointing at the other man.

“Not yet. I called you first to see how you’d like me to proceed.”

“They’ve been like this for four hours?” Ros asked as she pinched the bridge of her nose. She’d have to tell Harry to tell Agatha she could have _some_ liberties when it came to running facial recognition software.

“Yes, take a listen,” Agatha said as she handed Ros the headset.

“ _-ridiculous. Mayo wouldn’t last very long on a deserted island. There’s too much heat_ ,” Lucas was saying.

“ _Then don’t use mayo. Besides, we’re bringing the sandwich with us, not making it there. Surely we can use whatever we’d like on it?_ ” the other man said.

“ _Okay, true, but we’re forgetting a key factor here. No one told us that we have to use conventional sandwich materials_ ,” Lucas pointed out. Ros lifted an eyebrow. _Conventional_ sandwich materials? What the bloody hell was he on about?

“ _Oh, that’s a good point. We could always use other materials that won’t have that same risk factor to them_.”

“What on Earth are they talking about?” Ros asked.

“They’ve been talking about various kinds of sandwiches to bring to a deserted island,” Agatha said. “For four hours.”

She sighed. “Get me a copy of the recording when they’re done. I’ll listen to it myself and see if I can decode it.”

-x-

Five hours. Ros had listened to Lucas and the mystery man talk for _five hours_. They covered just about every type of sandwich Ros could think of _and then some_. If Lucas was anything, at this point, she was going to say he was bloody creative. Whatever code he was using, Ros couldn’t crack it. She could see where Agatha thought it might be code, but it wasn’t any of the conventional ones. For a brief moment, Ros wondered if it was code from over eight years ago, but discarded that notion quickly. Agatha would have recognized it as an old code, _surely_.

She finished the last of her coffee and got up to stretch. Five hours of listening to this nonsense. Her head bloody hurt. As much as it irked her, Ros had a feeling she was going to have to bring this to Harry and see if he could make sense of his pet officer’s drivel.   _Who knows? Maybe Harry will know who our mystery sandwich-enthusiast is_.

-x-

“This was from last night?” Harry asked.

Ros nodded. She was starting to think she might need a… well, she lost count of how many cups of coffee she was up to, but she was fairly certain she’d need another ten at this rate. “Yes. Agatha said they were at it for five hours.”

Harry pursed his lips and hit play. It couldn’t have run for more than a few seconds before Harry pressed pause again and sighed. Ros lifted an eyebrow. If Harry managed to crack the bloody code in less than a few seconds, she was going to bloody well _kill_ him.

“Five hours, you said?” Harry said and rubbed his eyes.

“Yes.”

“Well, then. Allow me to introduce you to Tom Quinn,” Harry said, spinning the monitor and pointing to the mystery man.

“You know him?”

“Unfortunately,” Harry said. “He and Lucas were close before Lucas went to Russia.”

“Don’t tell me,” Ros said, stifling an urge to scream.

“I’m afraid there was no code. This was Lucas telling us he knows we’re watching.”

 _That_ ** _bastard_**. She was going to kill Lucas bloody North.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello all! First and foremost, thanks for reading! <3
> 
> As with most things I've published here, I posted this both here and on tumblr. I borrowed Zen's take on Ros Myers (complete with her cat, Vladimir) with permission.
> 
> And with that out of the way, on to the rambles!
> 
> Life hit me with a few, hard-hitting curveballs recently, so I sort of kind of started binging on Chuck again because that's my go-to feel-good TV show that I watch whenever I need a mood boost. Anywho, while I was binging on Chuck, there was this great conversation between Chuck and Casey where Casey tells him he had to listen to four hours of Chuck and Morgan debating what type of sandwich they'd bring to a deserted island, which was the inspiration for this short drabble. While I was screaming about it to Heather and Zen on discord, it occurred to me that this little drabble would be a great Christmas present for them, as they both have been so wonderful and supportive these past few weeks in the wake of said curveballs.
> 
> Thank you so much, Heather and Zen, for all your support and for being the wonderful people that you are. Merry (late) Christmas and happy New Year's!
> 
> And, for everyone else, thank you again for reading! Happy holidays and happy New Year's! <3


End file.
